Warning: Worship is Dangerous

It has the potential to turn your life upside down…the potential to destroy you.

You can’t escape worship. It’s like breathing. Even if the air is toxic, you will eventually inhale.

If you are living, you are breathing. If you are human, you are worshipping.

If we will worship something, we must be careful about what we worship.

So what are you worshipping?

What are you celebrating?

What makes you want to throw a party?

Are you like king Belshazzar who threw a party in order to praise, worship and celebrate created things while dishonoring the Creator?

So they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, wives, and concubines drank from them. They drank the wine and praised their gods made of gold, and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.Daniel 5:3-4

Like anyone who breathes in the toxins of foul worship, things didn’t go well for King Belshazzar.

It’s insane when you really think about it.

A king worshipping and submitting himself to something man-made? Something…created?

Worship is dangerous mostly because it is a submission. It’s a bowing down. A placing yourself underneath. It’s a kind of slavery that can feel like freedom.

In a sense, you are free. You are free to give yourself over to whatever you choose. You are free to enslave yourself. You are free to worship, to submit, to bow down to…anything. But you will worship, you will submit, you will bow down to, and you will give your life to something…

And you will worship what owns you.

Fellow kings and queens, why do we bow to the things we were created to rule over?

Like I said, it’s insane when you really think about it.

We were created to rule over creation, not worship it.

…and You [Jesus] made them [the people of God] to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earthRevelation 5:10

God blessed [mankind] and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.Genesis 1:28

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles….They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator…Romans 1:22-25

If it is a created thing, don’t worship it.

Wooden statues: created (by people)

The sun, trees, sky, etc: created (by God)

Money: created (by society)

Sex: created (invented by God )

Work: created (invented by God)

Power: created (often by society and often times imaginary)

Other people: created (by God)

Your body: created (by God)

You get the idea.

Why would we let creation rule over us? Doesn’t it make more sense to worship the Creator?

When you worship the wrong things, it will turn your life upside-down….even more than you know.

You might even start to think that God too should worship creation.

You might even get mad when He refuses…when He doesn’t do things your way…when He doesn’t jump when you tell Him to jump…or when He communicates or exercises any kind of authority or sovereignty over you.

Doesn’t He know how this works? Creators submit to creation…right?

No, that’s not right and we all know it.

When we happily and willingly worship the Creator, things are as they should be. Life flourishes and joy abounds.

All of creation worshiping the Creator of all things is the happy ending to the story.

Be careful what you worship. At the very least, please be intentional about it. Be aware of yourself because accidental worship is dangerous worship.

I plead with you to worship the One who made you. Give your life to Him. Love Him so much that it makes you want to throw a party.

If you do, you will find yourself at a party someday soon. A party that will forever serve the purpose of kings and queens joyfully worshiping the Creator.